The Kinks - Face to Face -
To Kinks fans, "Face to Face" represents the start of the golden age. It is the first in a series of brilliant albums from the brothers Davies. However, before the album became legendary it was simply the new Kinks record. Released in 1966, the album represented a new direction for the brothers. Before Face to Face the kinks were (as many of the british invasion bands were) a good little R&B/Blues covers band with a couple of good singles. OK OK, they were great songs, but the band had yet to deliver a great ALBUM of original songs. On Face to Face, Ray Davies starts to develop the themes he would write about for years to come. Davies dealt with themes of British class, nostalgia, and quite simply...home.
I admit, ive never had the pleasure of hearing this album uninfluenced by critical reviews and 40 years of legend building. The album I bought 5 years ago had a slew of bonus tracks and a list of reasons as to why i should listen. The fact of the matter is that Im a stubborn bastard and its much easier for me to discount something that a few snotty kids tell me to listen to. That being said, Face to Face was impossible to discount.
The album starts with "Party Line." Its a great little pop song recalling the kinks earlier records. From there, the album maintains an unbelievably high standard of songwriting, melody, stylistic attitude, and genuinely heartfelt music. The now iconic "Hello, who's that speaking please" that begins the album was actually part of Ray Davies's attempt to make Face to Face into one of the first concept albums. Davies wanted to link the songs together with soundclips. Hence the ringing phone to start the album, the thunder and rain on "Rainy Day in June" and the waves in "Holiday in Waikiki." Although the idea was never taken to completion, it certainly does provide for some playful listening.
The album continues with "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home." The song was inspired by Ray Davies desire to see his sister again and keep his family together. Sure, it sounds mundane by this description, but the listener must understand that family was not a popular idea in rock n roll in the 1960s. It wasn't until the turn of 1969 that The Band made family cool again. This, however, was 1966.
"Dandy" jangles and bites with the best of the Kinks earlier singles but with a beatlesque sense of melody. Ray Davies writes, "Someday when you're old you will remember what they said. Two girls are too many, threes a crowd, and four your dead." "Too Much on My Mind" shows Davies growing increasingly introspective about the pressures of fame and art. These are not songs to hold hands to. Davies was starting to unwrap at the seams and he knew it. After all what do we do once we get where we were supposed to be going? What if we get what we so desperately want, and its not what we thought it would be?
A number of the songs on "Face to Face" are about the simple life. Many of the songs mock the ideas of what similarly parallels "the american dream." So what if everyone doesn't want the "House in the Country" or the "Holiday in Waikiki." Ray seemed to worry an awful lot.
This new direction even found The Kinks (like the Beatles) experimenting with the sounds of the eastern cultures. "Fancy" rests heavily on an Indian sounding foundation with the drone of guitar recalling that of a Sitar. The Beatles did it on a larger scale partly due to their level of fame and limelight but the Kinks were right there.
"The taxman's taken all my dough, and left me in my stately home. Lazing on a sunny afternoon." Thus begins perhaps the albums standout track. "Sunny Afternoon" is 3:33 of the best that pop music has to offer. The first 30 seconds of the song recalls Spoon 35 years before Spoon happened. Seemlessly drifting in and out of pop, rock n roll, folk, ragtime, americana, english dancehall, and blues in the course of one song, The Kinks deliver not only one of their greatest songs but one of the greatest songs by anyone.
One last song ("Ill Remember") and the Kinks leave you with a complete mindfuck of pop glory. However, the truely impressive thing about Face to Face goes beyond the 14 songs that compose the original release. The reissue i first purchased contained 7 bonus tracks. Thinking that outtakes and bonus tracks are for people who cant seem to find something new to listen to, I resisted letting the album play through to the end. One afternoon I left the stereo on and track 14 came and went. From there, once a song I found myself running to the liner notes to read about the bonus track I was listening to. I guess that this is where i learned that there was a time when bands didn't plug an album with 2 singles and a bunch of filler. The Kinks, like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who left us with a set of singles and B-sides as good as anything on their records. These weren't bands content with 10 songs of hipster vomit.
In the end, this is what i call gut music, The only music worth listening to. The Kinks were a hard working band fronted by pops great conflicting brothers (apologies to liam and noel). The music is not consciously cool or thoughtfully hip. These days, a band that makes 2 decent albums gets called the greatest band of our generation. That being said, I would hold up The Kinks "Face to Face" against either of the Arcade Fires "masterpieces" any day of the week. The funny thing, is that this isn't even the kinks crowning achievement. There were 5 more great Kinks records to follow "Face to Face" one at a time. Each of them, better than anything playing on our radio today. Either way "Face to Face" stands in my mind as one of the finest records of the British Invasion and in all of popular music. So go have a listen and feel bad that we get to choose between half baked indie rock and Nickleback.
Come on radio America! where are your guts?
"Face to Face" is one of the reasons i started writing my own songs.
and for the sake of us all "GOD SAVE THE KINKS!"
mm
